REAL WEDDINGS / IRELAND / ISSUE 36
An Epic Four-Day Destination Wedding at Ashford Castle in Ireland
Molly Kavanagh and Garrett Dunn were married on April 18, 2026, in a four-day celebration at Ashford Castle in County Mayo, Ireland, where the couple and their 150 guests had the entire castle to themselves.
Event Planning
Bruce Russell Events
Event Branding, Stationery, Gifting and Event Design Support
WedLuxe Creative Agency
Photography
Story of Eve
Venue
Ashford Castle
A-list destination wedding planners Bruce Russell and Emma Segal of Bruce Russell Events were tapped to produce the wedding, delivering an expertly planned series of extraordinary experiences for the couple and their guests.
WedLuxe Creative Agency developed the event’s creative direction across event branding, stationery, gifting, digital experience, custom event linen, event installations, and event design support. WedLuxe Founder and Creative Director Angela Desveaux led the design throughout.
About The Couple
Molly and Garrett met at Raleigh’s Pub in Berkeley, a longtime local institution just off campus. Molly had recently returned from Ireland, where she completed a degree in Law and Psychology at the University of Limerick, and was beginning a Master of Laws (LLM) at Berkeley Law. Garrett was finishing his senior year at UC Berkeley, studying Law and Media. The two struck up a conversation that carried through the evening and continued by phone for hours afterward. They went on their first official date at an Italian restaurant the following week and have been together ever since.
Garrett proposed at Carmel Beach, just steps from his family’s home, which the Dunns have owned for generations. The location held particular meaning: two years earlier, the couple had sat on that same beach watching the sunset and admitting they were falling in love. In the months leading up to the proposal, Molly and Garrett were also processing the loss of Molly’s younger brother, Charlie, and chose to wait until they felt emotionally ready for this next chapter. When Garrett finally proposed, the day mirrored that earlier evening at Carmel Beach, with a rare clear sunset closing out the moment. Both families gathered afterward at The Lodge at Pebble Beach, where the couple opened a bottle of Dunn Vineyard 2000 that Garrett’s father had set aside at his birth for a special occasion.
Trust Across Continents
Molly’s parents immigrated to the US from Ireland and have kept a second home there, a connection that remained central to Molly and the reason behind choosing Ireland for a destination wedding. That personal connection shaped how planners Bruce Russell and Emma Segal approached the entire weekend. Over the course of a year, the Bruce Russell Events team built a genuine relationship with Molly, Garrett, and Molly’s parents that made the celebration feel deeply personal. Coordinating a four-day, 150-guest wedding across continents and time zones came with real logistical complexity, but Bruce and Emma made it feel effortless, always keeping the focus on the guest experience rather than the mechanics behind it.
Stationery photography ©Angela Desveaux.
Branding The Celebration
Ahead of the wedding weekend, Angela Desveaux, founder and creative director of WedLuxe and WedLuxe Creative Agency, designed a custom crest carrying detailed personal meaning for Molly and Garrett. WedLuxe Creative Agency, the in-house creative studio of WedLuxe, partners with event planners and couples on the complete creative direction and visual identity of events, spanning branding, stationery and print, digital experiences, gifting, custom event linens, signage and installations, and event design support.
The crest was first introduced on the couple’s save the date and wedding website before anchoring their full invitation suite. The design wove together California poppies and a bear to mark where each of them grew up, an open book borrowed from the UC Berkeley logo to represent the university where they met and Garrett’s family’s four-generation legacy there, a traditional harp, clovers, a Claddagh ring for Molly’s Irish heritage, and an Irish wolfhound inspired by the estate’s resident hounds. Daffodils honored both of the couple’s grandmothers, each with their own connection to the flower, while a pair of angel wings held the memory of Molly’s late brother, Charlie. At the center of it all sat Ashford Castle itself.
The crest carried into the letterpress stationery and linen folio book of the couple’s invitation suite. A custom illustrated toile pattern celebrating the castle’s architecture and Irish symbols wrapped around the set, which included personalized “Irish green” leather luggage tags engraved with an illustration of Ashford Castle’s welcome tower, the same tower guests would later drive through upon arrival. Custom stamps were also designed for the invitations.
WedLuxe Creative Agency’s work extended beyond the invitation suite into the wedding weekend itself, including the design of gifting pieces such as a custom canvas tote and the couple’s playful “Dunn & Dusted” hangover kit.
“My parents had a Claddagh in their wedding stationery, so I loved that we could incorporate that into ours.”
Molly Kavanagh-Dunn, Bride
DAY ONE • THURSDAY
Upon Arrival
The couple, their families and the bridal party began arriving at Ashford Castle on Thursday for the start of the four-day celebration, welcomed into a full buy-out of the property. That evening, the group gathered in the castle’s “Dungeon” for dinner.
When guests checked into the castle, they each received a hand-delivered welcome bag that was custom-designed for the occasion, filled with classic Irish snacks. The printed itinerary with matching folio kept guests informed about the weekend activities.
For the Rehearsal Dinner, Molly wore a feathered dress by Bronx and Banco paired with a crystal-embellished clutch by Maya Grisham and platform heels by Valentino.
Emblematic Dinner In The Dungeon
Custom felt banners featuring Dunn and Kavanagh family heraldry, designed and fabricated by WedLuxe Creative Agency, hung from the dungeon ceiling. Personalized guest menus featured individual 18th-century Irish paintings, turning the table settings into individual keepsakes from the very first night.
DAY TWO • FRIDAY
Molly’s Bridal Brunch & Garrett’s Golf Morning
Molly’s intimate bridal brunch was held in the castle’s Inglenook Room. Garrett’s casual grab-and-go lunch was held in the Billiards Room before he, his groomsmen, and both fathers enjoyed a round of golf at Ashford Castle. Custom “Dunn Deal” golf shirts, monogrammed golf balls, baseball hats and engraved cigar cutters produced by WedLuxe Creative Agency were gifted to each groomsman. In the castle’s bar, the family treated guests to a menu of complimentary cocktails.
An Irish Welcome Party
Thursday evening, a rousing Irish Welcome Party was held in a Marquee adjacent to Cullen’s At the Cottage, a restaurant on property at Ashford Castle. Guests were asked to dress in green and gold for the occasion. The party featured Irish dancers, a traditional Irish band, and performances from “High Tide” and “Celtic Trad,” part of a weekend filled with entertainment that would ultimately feature more than ten bands and singers!
Molly’s dress by Alexia Maria, a female designer based in California, was a nod to the couple’s home base there. She carried a crystal-embellished clutch by Maya Grisham, styled as a Kerrygold salted butter package.
Tartan Inspired Details
The Kavanagh family tartan and Molly and Garrett’s monogram ran throughout the welcome party with design details by WedLuxe Creative Agency from a custom wall design and bar graphics to pillows, stir sticks, and ice cream cups and spoons. The bar featured cocktail signs and napkins printed with an Irish harp icon, the same icon used within the couple’s crest, carrying that visual thread through the weekend. For the ultimate in personalization, a specialty company imprinted the crest directly onto the foam of the beer served that night. After the party, guests returned to their rooms to find local Irish soap favors shaped like sheep on their pillows, paired with a note playing on “counting sheep” for one more sleep until the wedding day.
DAY THREE: SATURDAY
Before The Ceremony
Molly began the day in PETITE PLUME pajamas while getting ready. Her wedding gown was by Nicole & Felicia Couture, designers based in San Francisco, where she and Garrett live. She’d found the dress on Instagram and wasn’t sure it would end up being “her dress,” until she tried it on and knew instantly, drawn to its avant-garde oversized flowers, the structure of the bodice, and the crystal detailing within each flower.
Molly’s bouquet was composed entirely of lily of the valley, Christian Dior’s favorite flower, which he famously embroidered into his couture as a symbol of good luck. The choice tied directly into a Dior-inspired design thread woven throughout the wedding weekend. Pinned to the bouquet was a silver oval locket containing a photo of her late brother, Charlie, allowing him to remain close to her throughout the day.
Garrett and his wedding party wore custom bronze lapel pins featuring the couple’s crest, a specialty item procured by Bruce Russell Events.
The Ceremony
The ceremony took place at Ballintubber Abbey. Founded in 1216, it stands on the site of an even earlier church established by St. Patrick himself in 441 AD. Today, it remains one of the oldest churches in Ireland still in continuous use.
After the ceremony, the newlyweds returned to Ashford Castle in the very same 1958 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud that carried Molly’s parents on their wedding day in 1998. “It was a nod to a love story that came before us.”
The Reception
The reception unfolded back at the castle, opening with cocktails on the lawn, while the wedding party enjoyed a portrait session.
A Dior Moment
Molly has long been drawn to DIOR, and Jonathan Anderson’s appointment as the house’s first creative director to oversee womenswear, menswear, and couture since Christian Dior himself felt especially fitting given his Northern Irish roots.
Anderson’s collection’s use of clovers put the motif at the center of Angela’s plan for the seating chart installation, and she began searching for 3D clover motifs as a starting point for the wall before sourcing the gold clover garlands from Anthropologie. “The moment they arrived, they were so beautiful, I knew instantly they’d be perfect for the wall’s hanging mechanism,” Angela says. The wall took shape around them, layered with an Irish saying cut in mirror gold acrylic reading “Ar An Lá Seo / On This Day,” and escort cards shaped after the Dior medallion.
The Design Thread
The inspiration for the reception was a wallpaper design by the 18th-century Irish textile artist William Kilburn, originally sourced by Angela for the couple’s invitation suite. Planner Bruce Russell knew that Molly loved the pattern so he asked Angela to create custom linen using the design. To personalize it for Molly and Garrett, Angela added clovers and both grandmothers’ favorite flowers, lily of the valley and daffodils. It became the centerpiece of a reception design built collaboratively with planners Bruce Russell and Emma Segal of Bruce Russell Events and the wedding’s florist, Mark Grehan of The Garden. The linen was printed through Nuage. At the last minute, Angela decided to personally hand-carry the linen to Ireland to guarantee delivery amid a shipping strike affecting the country at the time.
CUSTOM KEEPSAKES • The pattern reappeared once more across the entire head table as custom-printed napkins, a surprise gift from designer Angela Desveaux of WedLuxe Creative Agency to Molly. Each guest’s menu was finished with a custom laser-engraved gold mirror placecard, designed as a keepsake to take home.
The Moments
One of the most unforgettable details of the reception was something guests experienced before they even took in the décor: the scent. Known for incorporating a signature fragrance into every celebration, Bruce Russell filled the welcome party and reception with hundreds of DIPTYQUE candles, creating an atmosphere that was as evocative as it was beautiful. The moment guests entered the ballroom, they were enveloped in a fragrance that became inseparable from the memories of the weekend, ensuring the celebration would be remembered not only for how it looked, but for how it felt.
Midway through dinner, what seemed like a waiter dropping a tray of dishes sent a commotion through the room, before the “waiter” broke into song, part of a surprise performance from SINGERS SECRETO that had the couple and their guests in fits of laughter as much as entertainment.
Dinner also carried a quiet tribute to Molly’s late brother, Charlie: a baby Guinness shot, his favorite, served to guests as one of several subtle details woven into the weekend in his memory.
The Dance Party
After dinner, the party moved into the room across from the ballroom, where all the furniture had been cleared to make way for dancing. Bruce Russell designed a set of extraordinary candle-holding shelving units for the space, built by the Gorilla Design team to look as though they’d stood there for centuries.
DJ Gordon and party band, The Mixtape, carried the night. Later, Garrett brought Molly’s mother, Mairead, onto the stage for a sing-along to ABBA. “They are best friends, legit besties,” Molly says, “and watching them live their best life, authentically themselves, on stage was just awesome.”The night was so lively that Garrett lost his wedding ring in the castle’s massive fountain, and the next morning, cheers could be heard echoing around the property as a member of the Ashford Castle staff waded in and found it.
DAY FOUR • SUNDAY
Sláinte to the Newlyweds
The weekend closed with a “Sláinte to the Newlyweds” at the local pub, Burke’s, rounding out the couple’s wish for an authentic Irish send-off with traditional music and dancing.
WedLuxe Creative Agency designed custom-branded coasters and a keepsake Irish songbook for a traditional singalong experience.
Molly’s final look of the weekend was handmade by designer and friend MARY O’SULLIVAN, from Limerick, featuring local Limerick landmarks meaningful to Molly’s family alongside symbols central to her and Garrett’s love story.
The Final Seisiún & Farewells
The group returned to the castle for “The Final Seisiún” after-party, playfully dubbed “Dunn Dash,” the couple’s playful spin on food delivery apps, complete with branded aprons for the Ashford castle staff, custom menus and custom packaging designed for the occasion. Four piece band, The Risers, and a Celtic drumming show from Hit Machine Drummers carried the celebration through its final hours, with fireworks closing out the weekend.
“We wanted our guests to have a true Irish experience: traditional music, a traditional ceremony, a drink at the local pub, the Siege of Ennis, dancing and singing until sunrise. Most of our guests were American, and we wanted them to leave feeling like they’d experienced real Ireland.”
Molly Kavanagh-Dunn, Bride
WedLuxe Glitterati Members
Ireland Destination Wedding PlannerBruce Russell Events
The Team
Every professional who shaped this story, listed by role.
PLANNING
VENUE
EVENT BRANDING, PRINT, DIGITAL & TEXTILE DESIGN, GIFTING, INSTALLATION DESIGNS & EVENT DESIGN SUPPORT
PHOTOGRAPHY
VIDEOGRAPHY
PRODUCTION TECH, LIGHTING & DESIGN
FLORAL DESIGN
DRESS (DAY 1)
DRESS (DAY 2)
WEDDING GOWN
WEDDING GOWN RETAILER
AFTER-PARTY DRESS
AFTER-PARTY DRESS RETAILER
CUSTOM OUTFIT (DAY 4)
CRYSTAL-EMBELLISHED BAGS
SHOES
SHOES
PAJAMAS
HAIR STYLING
MAKEUP
DRESSING SERVICES
AFTER PARTY BAND
CELTIC DRUMMERS
DJ
LIVE BAND
PARTY BAND
STRING QUARTET
SURPRISE SINGING WAITERS
TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC
UILLEANN PIPER
VOCALISTS
VOCALS & PIANO
CATERING RENTALS
CHURCH
CONTENT CREATION
EVENT RENTALS
FIREWORKS
GUEST TRANSPORTATION
GUINNESS PRINTER
MARQUEE
PUB
PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY
PRODUCTION SOUND
ROLLS ROYCE WEDDING CAR
WEDDING CAKE
WedLuxe Glitterati Members
Event Planning
Bruce Russell Events